The birdcage
Aubusson tapestry woven in the Pinton workshops.
With its selvedge, no. 1/6.
Circa 1980.
Although he designed silk patterns in his youth and created large-format paintings that served as exhibition manifestos (for example, "The Plague in Beauce" from 1953 measured 250 x 360 cm), Lorjou's interest in tapestry came late: perhaps he considered the roughness and robustness of his style unsuitable for weaving (his close associates, Rebeyrolle, Mottet, Sébire, etc., would themselves never work in tapestry). In the 1970s, his style became more dreamlike and less expressionistic: it was then that he produced designs for the Pinton workshop.
The chromatic range, the bird motifs, are characteristic of Lorjou from the 70s; the material of the paintings is reproduced in tapestry by the differences in weaving points.
